High transposable element expression in sarcomas is associated with increased immune infiltrates and improved outcomes including after immunotherapy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Response to immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) in sarcomas is overall low and heterogeneous. Understanding determinants of ICI outcomes may improve efficacy and patient selection. Thus, we investigated whether the expression of transposable elements (TEs), which are epigenetically silenced and can stimulate antitumor immunity, influence ICI outcomes and immune infiltrates in common sarcoma subtypes.

Methods

We used transcriptomic data to assign immune enhanced versus immune depleted status to 67 pretreatment and on-treatment biopsies of sarcomas from patients treated on ICI trials, along with additional cohorts from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and an independent ICI trial (SARC028). A machine learning technique (lasso-penalized logistic regression) controlled f

SUBMITTER: Nacev BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12414182 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature